A record-breaking 55.74 million digital songs were sold last week (ending Dec. 30) — the single-largest week for download song sales ever according to Nielsen SoundScan. It beats the previous record of 47.73 million sold during the week ending Dec. 28, 2008.

The huge sales surge last week is owed largely to consumers redeeming music download gift cards received on Christmas Day. A week earlier (ending Dec. 23) there were 25.50 million songs sold.

News Update: Fresh on the scene and Kings favorite Eden Jima who spent the last year promoting her 4 song EP just released a new song titled ‘Far Away‘. Our other favorite is ‘Fragile‘. She has a knack for creating hit-worthy music that is fun, catchy, emotionally-driven and easy to dance to.
Contact: edenjima@yahoo.com

Buzz Track: Secret

News Update: Kings favorite singer-songwriter Shannon Labrie will part of The iTunes Nashville Indie Spotlight that runs December 18th thru the month of January. She will perform at the House of Blues in Los Angeles on January 24th. She has a slew of other days confirmed as well.
Contact: brett@zodlounge.com

The world’s biggest recording companies have been stripped of two billion YouTube hits after the website cracked down on alleged ‘fake viewers’.

Universal, home of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber, lost a total of one billion views in the video site’s biggest ever crackdown on artificially inflated figures.

Sony was second hardest hit, with the label behind such stars as Alicia Keys, Rita Ora and Labrinth losing more than 850million views in a single day.

The dramatic cuts came as YouTube conducted a crackdown on fake views, but music industry sources have blamed it on housekeeping related to the migration of their videos across different channels.

The unprecedented move left Universal with just five videos on the site – none of which were music – and Sony with just three.

‘This was not a bug or a security breach. This was an enforcement of our viewcount policy,’ YouTube announced. Read more here

Rapper Drake wants a cut from all the merchandise that bears the logo ‘YOLO’ even though he didn’t coin it. Here is why he thinks he deserves a piece of the pie.

This year has been marked by many a viral phenomenon, including the concept of YOLO made famous by the Canadian rapper Drake, who now wants a share from the sales of all the merchandize bearing the catchphrase.

The 26-year-old recording artist, who reportedly has a net worth of $25million, posted two images on the photo-sharing website Instagram depicting clothing emblazoned with the acronym YOLO, which stands for ‘you only live once.’

The first picture uploaded on Christmas Eve shows baseball caps in a variety of colors being sold for $12 for a pair at Walgreen’s,  accompanied by the comment: ‘Walgreens…you gotta either chill or cut the cheque,’ Gawker reported.

The second photo shows a powder-blue T-shirt featuring the children’s characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy which reads ‘YOLO is my motto,’ along with a post: ‘Macy’s…same goes for you.’

YOLO, which has been around since 2004, turned into a viral sensation this year thanks to Drake’s hit song The Motto, which includes the lyrics: ‘Now she want a photo, you already know, though/ You only live once: that’s the motto n***a, YOLO.’ Read more here